“People are looking for a Pepsi to YouTube’s Coke,” claimed DailyMotion’s US managing director Roland Hamilton in the Wall Street Journal story.

The French video sharing platform has a ways to go if it wants to compete with YouTube. The Wall Street Journal reports DailyMotion’s unique visitors per month, including its syndication partners, totals 230 million, with 25 million visitors from the US, compared to YouTube’s more than one billion unique visitors a month, with approximately 20 percent of its audience located in the US.

The Wall Street Journal says DailyMotion’s parent company Orange has committed to investing $3 to $4 million toward the original programming initiative, financing six series that will include regular-length episodes and star well-known food, music and entertainment personalities.

If the series are picked up for full seasons, the Wall Street Journal claims costs could run as high as $10 million in the first year.

Wall Street Journal reports that filming for the DailyMotion’s first show “Feedback Kitchen with Mario Batali” is completed and will include guest appearances by musicians Patti Smith and U2 guitarist the Edge.

Hamilton told the Wall Street Journal that show advertisers will be brought in after filming, and that short-form content from the series will be created for mobile viewing which represents approximately 30 percent of DailyMotion’s traffic.

The report confirms DailyMotion’s upcoming series will run on the video platform’s main site and through syndication with Microsoft Xbox, MSN, Buzzfeed, Condé Nast and others. Wall Street Journal referenced Orange CEO Stéphane Richard’s announcement earlier this week that his company was, “In talks to sell a minority stake in DailyMotion to Microsoft,” as well as considering French pay-TV operator Canal Plus and Singapore Telecommunications as potential buyers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, YouTube invested $100 million in original programming channels over two years ago, which Google claimed ranked in YouTube’s top 2 percent of content based on subscriber numbers.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media's General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.